The timetable for the daytime can be found here, we'll find out our warm-up pub when we arrive on Friday in our welcome pack:
I've attached the Final Instructions from the DERT committee which should have some info on food availability, the silly "Coals to Newcastle" competition and all that jazz. 🎵
For Friday evening, it would be good to have as many of us wearing some kind of merch - T-shirts/hoodies etc.
Friday:
Travel: 🚂
If you are on the 1500 train, please by at Kings Cross at 1445 at the latest between Leon and the ticket info place so I can hand out tickets and we can board without any panic! I might bring myself some tins of gin... We get to Newcastle at 1750. Don't forget your railcard! (and buy one if you don't yet have it/it is out of date).
Hotel: 🛏
We are staying at the Jury's Inn, Newcastle (the one nearest the station and on the north side of the river -
http://tinyurl.com/y6p9kank). There's a short cut through the life sciences centre from the station. It is 2 people per room, though we do now have one spare bed, all rooms are supposed to have 1 double bed and 1 single bed. I've put the some provisional pairings together at the bottom of the email, but feel free to change this - names in bold are the named person for the room - they might not actually care, but just in case. If you are there earlier than me and have any issues, just give me a ring. In theory they will charge my card on the day. Please note that we do not have breakfast included in the room, but you can purchase it there or go to a nearby shop/cafe/pub. 9 of the rooms are on this booking ref:
360465817 Will, yours is on this one (can't book more than 9 at a time without jumping through hoops, so I didn't):
360465849
Evening Venue 🍸
The evening venue is Star & Shadow Cinema – DERT HQ. They are serving food 6-10 and there are takeaways and supermarkets nearby. The coach trip also arrives back at around 6pm, so I'm presuming that's when that opens up. The Star and Shadow bar will stay open until midnight, then the Coal Yard open 11-2 (will need our DERT tickets to get in there though). An option for food pre-Star and Shadow Cinema that has lots of space and would cater for all our dietary needs is Wagamama - obviously we can see how we feel when we arrive. Keep in touch on the WhatsApp, as I know not everyone is arriving at the same time.
Saturday:
We need to be over in the Ouseburn for our warm up dance at 10am, so at the moment the call will be 9am gathering in the hotel lobby ready to leave by 0915 via collecting some food if you need it. It may also be a good idea to grab something to have for lunch later as I don't think we are near food venues other than inside the pubs themselves.
Timetable in the link above. Have a blast of a day! We're going to be awesome! 🕶
I've copied Becky's drinking rules etc. as I can't think of a better way to phrase it!
**Drinking rules: as always I'm going to implement my have one drink before we start to calm nerves. Laura obviously you do whatever you feel necessary at this point! I will probably also suggest another drink in the afternoon, but I want to avoid drinking too much until we're done! Westerhopers obviously you can drink a bit during the day but please be sensible, it'd be awful to have worked so hard only to go wrong due to a drink too many during the day. During the evening we can go wild! Again, hoping a schedule appears soon so that we can judge when we will be dancing both the trad and the showcase. 🍸
**Lunch: the area doesn't have anywhere we can go specifically, although the venues generally do food and snacks.As we aren't close to Byker at lunch then I might suggest picking something up on route to make sure there is something we want and that we can get it in time. 🍔
**Post-lunch and pre-trad dancing. Newcastle has many pubs that are happy to have rapper but it's a match day so we might really struggle, especially at lunch time. Again it all depends on location and timings as what will be available, but we'll try!
If we're able to get some photos during the day to keep the buzz going on social media (and also so we can post some after DERT so it looks like we went!) Pop them on the Whatsapp when you're able to. 📷
We'll be done shortly after 1630 in the Cumberland and need to be in the Tyne Theatre and Opera House at 1800 for the trad, I don't know what time we are on, but regardless we should do our best to be there throughout to support the other teams too/avoid stress about getting there in time. We aren't able to take food and alcohol into the venue, but it is very central, so there should be plenty of stuff nearby for popping out. Am guessing that depending on what time Westerhope are up, might not want to eat beforehand.
The after party once all that is done is back at the Star and Shadow Theatre Bar, there will be shuttle buses over there, otherwise it is a 30 min walk. Again bar open until midnight, then the Coal Yard after that. 🍸
Sunday:
We usually find a pub (often Wetherspoons, but other pubs are available) on the Sunday morning to have some breakfast/brunch/nurse hangovers etc. The workshop will be at 10 in the Cumberland Arms, followed by the DERT reps meeting (at least one of us will go to this) at 1115 followed by farewell drinks, all in the Cumberland. We are then (most of us) on the 1301 train back to London, which will get us in at 1551. So, if we can be at the station by 1245 please to save me from worrying. 🍸
Hopefully that should cover it. Any questions, please do shout - you might not be the only one wanting to know something!
Can't wait to see you all on Friday!
(Congratulations for reaching the end!!)
Thanks,
Hannah
Room pairings:
1 Hannah N & Martin
2 Laura & Paul
3 Rachel & Dan
4 Katherine & Tom R
5 Becky & Ffion
6 Emma & Hannah TD
7, 8, 9 take your pick: Ellie, Miriam, Joanna, Hannorah, Tori - one of you is going to be lucky to have a room to yourself! Can one of you also pretend to be Rachel-Anne please? a room is booked in her name...
10 Will
Sue booked her own in case anyone thinks I'm missing her out